Scott W. Baker: Chaos out of Chaos

Galleys

July 17, 2010

Hi folks. Back from vacation with no writing to show for it. I had fun, though, and I’m largely refreshed. That should help.

I did receive my very first galleys while I was gone. My second ones, too. Galleys (the term my WotF colleagues have been using) are really just page proofs for the parts of the publication relevant to the author, in this case me. We need to be sure my name is spelled right and no formatting errors crept into the story. I got my Zero Gravity galleys on Tuesday (I think) and my WotF galleys Thursday. Both were pretty darn good.

I also got a rejection from Daily Science Fiction for S.R. I shaved the story down about 100 words to get to the point quicker and sent it back out, this time to Apex Magazine. That’s a long shot because they deal in dark SF; S.R. has some darkness to it, but maybe not enough. I had intended to hit Lightspeed with this story, but they’re having submission system issues and remain closed until they are remedied. If Apex passes, we’ll try again. This story will sell somewhere; I just need to find the right market. I haven’t hit any of the big 3 with it yet; a fact that surprised me a bit. I don’t usually send snail mail subs during the summer since it’s harder to get to the post office, but school starts in a couple weeks and I’ll have them on my list again.

I’ve lost all momentum on all my projects. That probably means I have late mistakes to fix. I’ll troll for them tonight.

Yeah, I got a story back from some place and looked up where to send it next and was shocked I’d never sent it to Asimov’s since it is pretty much tailor made for there in some ways. Oops. I remedied that (Yay electronic submission system).

DSF has given me two rejections so far, but I’ve got more stories to throw at them mwhahahaha…*cough-ahem*. I like it when new markets open up, because it gives my stuff a fresh pile to land on 🙂

I still remember how much I wanted to be able to say, in a fake-annoyed, fraudulently off-hand manner, “Oh bother, oh poo, I have to look at my galleys! (pout)” Like all the Name authors seem to do. Lord, yes, what a wonderful chore the galleys are. I especially like the WOTF galleys, which had but a single error, and the typeface and presentation is gorgeous. I gave my printed version to my wife to read — first time she gets to read this story — because she destroys paperbacks and even though we get 12 free copies of vol. 26 I don’t want to see even one of them trashed. (smirk)